Catholic Vancouver June 09, 2023
Vancouver College builds for a new century as the last Christian Brother leaves its classrooms
By Terry O'Neill
Vancouver College this month marks not only the conclusion of its year-long 100th-anniversary celebration, but also the end of a century-spanning era in which Christian Brothers taught at the school.
Brother Charles Gattone, 75, the last remaining Christian Brother to teach not only at the historic Catholic boys’ school but also in the country, is retiring at the end of the month after devoting 53 years to Catholic education; he will return to his Chicago home to live in community with fellow Brothers and to be closer to his family.
Brother Gattone’s departure was announced at the school’s Centenary Mass, celebrated by Archbishop J. Michael Miller on June 3 in the school’s Alumni Gymnasium. About 350 persons attended, including five priests, two deacons, and one seminarian, all of whom graduated from Vancouver College. Brother Gattone sang in the choir.
He began his teaching career in Chicago, was the principal of a Catholic school in Arizona, and helped facilitate the merger of the three Christian Brothers provinces into the New Jersey-based Edmund Rice Christian Brothers North America Province. He joined the Vancouver College faculty in 2006 and taught there for 17 years.
“During those years, he generously shared his energy and enthusiasm for languages, faith, and life as a French and religion teacher,” the school said in a written statement. “He was a role model to many as Religion Department chair and a significant member of Campus Ministry.”
Reflecting on his vocation, Brother Gattone said he hoped he helped his students develop a relationship with God. “In the classroom and on retreats ... I always remind them that we encounter God in the people and events of our lives,” he said in an e-mail interview. “Whether it was in religion class or in a French class, I wanted them to know that they are important and cared for.”
He also said the Christian Brother’s founder, Blessed Edmund Rice, was correct in his belief that a solid Catholic education was the recipe for a successful and happy life.
Vancouver College has an excellent understanding of the Christ-centred “Essential Elements of an Edmund Rice Christian Brother Education,” Brother Gattone said. “I am confident that Edmund’s spirit will continue to guide the many talented educators of Vancouver College. I leave here with confidence in the next 100 years of Vancouver College.”
Grateful staff and students surprised Brother Gattone after his final class June 6 by lining up outside the school to cheer and applaud him as he departed.
Archbishop Miller said in his homily that he has “profound gratitude” for all the families, organizations, and individuals who dedicated themselves to supporting the education of boys at the school.
“We likewise owe our thanks to the vast number of Christian Brothers for the dedication, hard work, and sacrifices they have made over the past century for the benefit of their students,” he said.
Archbishop Miller said that by offering education to all, the school community has stayed true to the educational principles of Blessed Edmund Rice.
“He saw each [student] as a child of God, with real potential to be unleashed, so that each one could become the unique being that God wanted him to be,” Archbishop Miller said. “Vancouver College belongs to this noble tradition of standing in solidarity with those marginalized by poverty and injustice.”
Established in 1922, Vancouver College is the only all-boys, independent Catholic school in B.C. It currently enrols more than 1,000 boys from kindergarten to Grade 12. The school is held in trust and operated by Vancouver College Limited.
The Christian Brothers’ role in the school has been steadily declining for some time. Its last Christian Brother principal, Brother Anthony Murphy, served in that role until 2003. Its current principal is Daryl Weaver, a graduate of Burnaby’s St. Thomas More Collegiate, at which the Christian Brothers also used to teach but which has been without a teaching Brother for several years.
Vancouver College and St. Thomas More Collegiate are the only two Canadian schools that still list an affiliation with the Christian Brothers. The order’s website lists affiliations with 15 schools in the U.S., six in Latin America, and one in the West Indies.
A member of the order at its New Jersey headquarters said in a telephone interview that retired Brothers live in the Vancouver, Toronto, and St. John’s areas, and many still perform some sort of ministry work. Two men in North America are currently in formation to become Christian Brothers, he said. In contrast, “there’s a steady stream” of new Brothers in Africa and India.
While faith-based education, and academic and athletic achievements have long been hallmarks of Vancouver College, the school has also faced legal and financial challenges during the past two decades related to the Christian Brothers’ record of sexual and physical abuse of students at the Mount Cashel Orphanage in Newfoundland. In 2002, the school paid an out-of-court settlement of $13.8 million to Mount Cashel victims.
Earlier this year, Vancouver College, St. Thomas More Collegiate, and the Archdiocese were named in a class-action suit brought by former VC students who claimed abuse by teachers who were transferred to B.C. from Mount Cashel.
Notwithstanding such challenges, support for the school remains strong, allowing it to rebuild its Shaughnessy campus during the past decade. In 2021, it announced the successful conclusion of its Our Next Century Campaign, which raised $40 million.
B.C. Catholic contributor Terry O’Neill graduated from Vancouver College in 1969.